– The major importance of attachment is the ability to form relationships with people other than the primary attachment figure
INTERNAL WORKING MODEL
– Bowlby’s concept of the internal working model is similar to a schema
– Bowlby suggested that a child having their first relationship with the primary attachment figure forms a fundamental representation of this relationship.
– This internal working model acts as a template for future relationships.
An infant learns about relationships from experience and how partners in a relationship behave towards each other.
– A child whose experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will tend to assume that this is how relationships are meant to be
– They will then seek out functional relationships and act functionally within them. (Without being too emotionally involved or emotionally close).
– A child with a bad experiences will bring these bad experiences into later relationships
– They may struggle to form relationships in the first place or they may not behave appropriately when they have them
LOVE QUIZ
– Hazan and Shaver (1987) conducted the ‘Love Quiz’
– This aimed to investigate the impact of early attachments on later life adult behaviour.
PROCEDURE
– 620 replies to the Love Quiz printed in an American local newspaper were analysed.
– 205 from men and 415 from women
– The quiz had three sections:
– The first assessed the respondent’s current or most important relationship.
– The second part assessed general love experiences such as the numbers of partners
– The third assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of three statements best described their feelings.
FINDINGS
– 56% of respondents were identified as securely attached
– 25% insecure-avoidant and 19% insecure-resistant.
– Those reporting secure attachments were the most likely to have good and longer lasting relationships.
– The avoidant responses tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy.
CONCLUSIONS
– These findings suggest that the patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships.
– They found a relationship between the concept of love (the internal working model) and attachment type
– Securely attached individuals tended to have a positive internal working model
BEHAVIOURS INFLUENCED BY THE INTERNAL WORKING MODEL
CHILDHOOD FRIENDSHIPS
– Researchers found continuity between early attachment and later emotional/social behaviour.
– Those who are securely attached in infancy are highest-rated for social competence later in childhood, were less isolated and more empathetic.
– This can be explained in terms of the internal working model because securely attached infants have high expectations that others are friendly and trusting, and this was enable easier relationships with each other.
POOR PARENTING
– Harlow’s research with monkeys showed a link between poor attachment and later difficulties of parenting.
– The lack of an internal working model means that individuals lack of reference point to form relationships with their own children.
ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS
– The study by Hazan and Shaver demonstrated a link between early attachment type and later relationships.
– Individuals who are securely attached had longer lasting romantic relationships.
MENTAL HEALTH
– The lack of an attachment during the critical period would result in a lack of an internal working model.
– They have an experience of severe neglect or frequent changing of caregivers.
– Children with attachment disorder have no preferred attachment figure, and inability to interact and relate to others which is evident before the age of 5,
EVALUATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY ATTACHMENTS
LIMITATIONS
Overly Deterministic
– A criticism of attachment research is that it is overly deterministic.
– For example, the research by Hazan and Shaver suggest that very early experiences have a fixed effect on later adult relationships.
– They say children who are insecurely attached will experience emotional unsatisfactory relationships as adults.
– This is not the case as some people are in happy relationships despite not having been securely attached
– Therefore, this deterministic way of thinking undermines many insecurely attached people in very happy relationships and also discourages people with insecure attachments to try and find happiness in relationships
Low Validity
– In some studies they assess infant-parent attachment by means of interview or questionnaire years after they were infants.
– This creates validity problems as assessment relies on self-report techniques like interviews or questionnaires to assess the quality of those relationships.
– The validity of questionnaires and interviews is limited because they depend on respondents being honest and having realistic view on their own relationships.
– Looking back in adulthood at a relationship to a primary attachment figure lacks validity because it relies on accurate recollections.
– Therefore, the use of the self-report technique lowers the validity of these studies
Research is Correlational
– The research linking internal working model with later relationship experiences is correlational rather than experimental.
– Therefore, we can’t claim that relationships between early attachment and later love style is one of cause and effect.
– It is possible that both attachment style and later love stars are caused by something different, such as innate temperament.
– Infant temperament affects the way a parent responds which may be a determining factor in infant attachment type.
– The individual temperament may explain their issues with relationships later in life.
– Therefore you can’t say the internal working model determines later relationships as you cannot establish cause and effect